Luxury Waste

Susan Robb

Portable Works Collection

In a place where Native people once created clothing, vessels, and tools on the banks of the Duwamish River, today Recology’s Material Transfer Facility processes recycling. “Day after day, trucks dump enormous piles of items we no longer find useful or want, the shadow objects of our modern life,” says Susan Robb, whose Luxury Waste is made of repurposed plastic bags found among the detritus there.

Robb spent five months in residency at Recology, foraging for materials from what she calls “the towering mountains” of garbage. She selected plastic bags for their color and texture, then painstakingly cleaned and wove the plastics into cloth and containers, transforming them without breaking their connection to their former lives. These objects, Robb says, “can’t help but speak about the extravagance of convenience, the luxury of waste.” This particular piece, now part of the county’s Portable Works Collection, represents her take on Burberry’s iconic nova check pattern.

Continue Reading ›

Based in Seattle, Robb creates sculpture, photography, video, performance, interventions, and socially engaged projects that investigate people and emotional connections to place. She has exhibited her work at museums and galleries nationally and internationally, and her other 4Culture commissions include The Long Walk, a 45-mile pedestrian adventure.